Sophie was a bit unnerved by a strange woman on the BART who was half naked and wearing a throw over her shoulders. We are confronted on an hourly basis by some pretty desperate and sad people in the city and it's not pleasant seeing them live in abject misery. Nobody has been threatening but the city certainly has a problem when it comes to the homeless and widespread drug taking.
From Embarcadero we took the tram to Pier 33 and had a coffee and a muffin in the cafe. I was able to call Keith and have a chat, which was lovely. It was 8pm in the UK and he was settling down to watch the football!
Lots and lots of people were arriving to take the boats over to Alcatraz and there was an air of general chaos. I thought we had to queue up again to get our email print-out validated, but the staff member said we could just queue as normal. We were loaded onto a boat and took seats by the window. It has been cloudy again today with a brisk wind so I was glad I had my light coat with me. It had been drizzling earlier but thankfully it had stopped!
Once we had landed at Alcatraz, we were given a short talk by a highly excitable ranger who clearly loved her job! We were told not to go into any areas off limits and there was no smoking, eating or drinking away from the Dock area. She also mentioned birds...and there are thousands of them, along with lots and lots of poop!
Alcatraz is very hilly and the cells are at the very top of the island. We slogged up the hill to the workshop first as it was closing at 3pm and Sophie has a special interest in this area of prison.
The building is very austere with vast areas of concrete and rusting metal. In the workshop there was an exhibition called Future IDs. I wasn't really sure what it was all about but some of the artwork caught my eye.
The views across to San Francisco were stunning and I just wish it had been a beautiful day.
From the workshop we climbed even higher to the building containing the cells. Here, you pick up a headset and listen to commentaries as you explore. Unfortunately, after a few words mine stopped working so I was not very happy! I could have battled my way back downstairs and picked up another one, but I was annoyed it had broken. I listened to the commentary on Sophie's and we moved our way around the cells, all of which were tiny and horrible!
Unfortunately, Sophie's then stopped working and we saw several people fiddling with theirs so obviously it's a fairly common occurrence!
We wandered about as we had no idea in which sequence we needed to follow and couldn't find our way out!
Luckily there was a volunteer nearby and we asked him which way to go. As always, he asked where we were from and we said Northampton. His response was amazing...he said "Oh, the Mandarin Buffet restaurant?" I looked at him open-mouthed because why on earth would he have known about an ordinary restaurant in Weston Favell of all places? We asked him how he knew and he replied, "Research"!!! It was completely bizarre and we fell about laughing!
The way out was through the dining hall and a talk was just about to start, given by David who was a volunteer. It was about two men who had managed to plan an escape and was very interesting (both men were caught and sent into solitary confinement).
We wandered back down to the dock and decided to take the 4.15 boat back to the mainland. Once there we took a tram to Powell as Sophie wanted to go to the Levi's store and buy some jeans. On the way, a homeless man boarded the tram with all of his belongings which blocked the aisle. The looks people gave him were priceless!
Sophie bought a pair of jeans in Levi's and then we made our way to Macy's. We noticed it was opposite so why we had walked the long way around the other day is a mystery!
We had learned that there was a Cheesecake Factory on the 7th floor so up we went! How I wish we'd known about this the other night when we were looking for a restaurant! We were asked if we wanted to sit outside or inside, but we chose in as I could see lots of birds hanging about near the tables and I didn't fancy fighting off pigeons!
The views were stunning:
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| You can just see the Mark Hopkins in the background with the flag |
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| Union Square |
We skipped starters and went straight into the main course - Sophie had the Orange Chicken that she'd been fantasising about while I had the Parmesan crusted chicken served with mashed potatoes and green beans. The portions, as always, were huge and we're both seriously starting to think about splitting a starter and a main course! We were given bread and butter by our server so we did not go hungry!
As it was the Cheesecake Factory, I ordered a slice to take back with me, while Sophie asked for the rest of her meal to be boxed up as well. The bill came to $90 with a tip and we made use of the wifi by ordering an Uber to take us back to the apartment as neither of us could face the train and bus journey home.
We had a great driver and he took us through the Tenderloin, an area near to Union Square that is full of homeless people, seedy hotels and boarded up buildings. Not the sort of place you would want to venture into on foot as a tourist. We watched open-mouthed at the activities going on on the streets - people wandering about, tent encampments and one woman openly shouting and drinking from a bottle as she ranted. And this less than a mile from Union Square and the designer shops.
Back at the apartment we relaxed and I managed a third of my cheesecake...it was delicious!
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